a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the collection of urine specimens from patient groups including adult females, adult uncircumcised males, and pediatric males.
b) Discussion of the Prior Art
Medical science has proven the need for routine urinalysis to detect enumerable disease processes. The most commonly used method for this in the hospital, office practice and home health practice, is a clean catch mid-stream urinalysis. The clean catch mid-stream urinalysis is currently collected in one of many different size cups or containers. However, it has been found that adult females, adult uncircumcised males, and pediatric males have specific and distinct problems in relation to the presently used collection methods. For example, in the adult female, vaginal voiding and contamination by the labia and hair of the vaginal region during the act of micturition renders many of the urinalyses unusable in relation to accurate bacterial and leucocyte quantifications. In present practice this necessitates the insertion of a tube into the bladder for an accurate urinalysis when looking for an infection. In the adult uncircumcised male, for example, often this person is not instructed in the proper collection of the specimen (pulling the foreskin back and cleansing the glans penis) and therefore contamination occurs. Also, for example, in the neonatal and young pediatric male, collection devices are generally a bag-like device placed around the scrotum, penis, and suprapubic region, thereby enhancing bacterial contamination.
There have been a number of suggestions for apparatuses for taking urinary samples in the prior art, but none have found acceptability in the medical profession involved with overseeing the taking of samples and transporting said samples for analytical evaluation. One particular reference noted is U.S. Pat. No. Re. 26,854 which teaches an apparatus for collecting urine samples from female patients which includes a container with an elongated tube sealingly mounted in the open end of the container. The elongated tube on its distal end includes a compressible and resilient pad portion which is adapted to be positioned around the urethral meatus and in use the urine is collected in the sample collector.